PHS band, choir took center stage at Vince Lombardi's farewell game in 1969

By DOUG McDONOUGHHerald Managing Editor

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, October 10, 2009

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PHS band, choir took center stage at Vince Lombardi's farewell game in 1969

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Performing to an audience that spanned an entire continent, 40 years ago the Plainview High School Band and Choir took center stage during a profoundly historic moment in professional football.

On Dec. 21, 1969, the 226-member PHS band, then dubbed “The Pride of the Plains,” and the 65-member PHS choir spread out across the turf at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas to perform a special Christmas-themed halftime show for the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins game.

As the last regular-season game between bitter NFL rivals, CBS made it a regional game of the week.

The contest, which the Cowboys won, 20-10, pitted coach Tom Landry against his old nemesis, Vince Lombardi, who was coaching the final game in his 10-year NFL career. Lombardi spent nine years (1959-67) as head coach at Green Bay, then came out of retirement to coach the Redskins during the 1969 season. He died of colon cancer the next summer.

“I remember that huge smile plastered across his face as he walked out to the middle of the field” during team introductions, retired PHS bandmaster O.T. Ryan recently recalled. “Even having all the Cowboys fans booing him didn’t seem to make any difference at all.”

It also happened to be the last year for CBS and other major TV networks to routinely focus their cameras on NFL halftime performances instead of airing game highlights and scoreboards. On that particular Sunday afternoon, CBS Sports producers at almost all the other NFL games decided to pick up the halftime broadcast from Dallas rather than show the performances at their own stadiums. That meant the Dallas halftime show was broadcast live to Mexico, Canada and the entire United States, save for a part of the Northeast that stayed with the game being played in Boston.

“It really was a big deal, since CBS broadcast our entire show — all 11 minutes of it,” Ryan explained. “I remember the band marching off the field when it was finally over and our CBS producer, Jim Skinner, running out and shouting, ‘We just picked up Canada!’ I didn’t realize at the time what he meant, so I asked, ‘Was it heavy?’ ”

It indeed was “heavy” as evidenced by the huge assortment of post-performance congratulatory letters and telegrams Ryan has tucked away in a scrapbook of the event.

“It was a big deal for Plainview,” Ryan explained. “And after it was over, we received a number of similar invitations. But we’d already done that, and the time and effort and expense involved were just too much to do again anytime soon. The pressure getting the show together was immense, and all those early-morning outdoor rehearsals in December sure were cold.”

In spring 1969 the Cowboys invited the PHS band to perform at halftime upon the recommendation of G.T. Gilligan, band director at Kermit. As plans for the program began to materialize, the invitation was expanded to include the choir.

“The Cotton Bowl had an exceptional sound system with speakers all around inside the stadium, which worked out perfectly,” Ryan recalled.

B.C. “Doc” Cross was president of the Plainview Band Parents Association in 1969, and it fell upon that group’s shoulders to raise the funds to finance the trip.

“The band parents used to sponsor a week-long summer carnival as a fundraiser,” Cross explained, “and we had a number of other fundraisers including candy sales and a community birthday calendar.”

The group also made a number of oversized props out of Styrofoam for the performance, including mallets for ringing chimes and a seven-foot electrical outlet to plug in a huge amplifier.

In addition to raising the money and building the props for the trip, the band parents provided most of the 50 adult chaperones for the three-day trip, which required eight chartered buses — six for the band and two for the choir — and a large rental truck for instruments and props.

“There were an awful lot of people involved in putting together that wonderful trip,” Cross said. “It’s marvelous to see how well they did then, and how the program continues to grow and get even better.”

Ryan did most of the choreography for the show, with the help of assistant band director Dennis Teasdale. Jim DeWese, PHS speech teacher, wrote the script for CBS Sports announcer Lindsey Nelson. Jim Sudduth, Lubbock Coronado band director, wrote special music arrangements for the performance. John Woicikowfski directed the choir.

“The kids all acted really well on the trip,” Ryan recalled, “and they played very good as well. That’s what really impressed the producers and why they ended up broadcasting the entire show.”

Another sheet lists the music performed, “March of Carols,” “Cathedral Chimes” (Westminster chimes), “Joy to the World,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Jingle Bells” (both traditional and rock versions), “Fanfare,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “White Christmas” and “A Christmas Festival.” Most of the tunes had to be arranged for the band by Sudduth.

“We were having trouble working out the Westminster chimes until Bill Porter, who was band director at Amarillo High, mentioned that he had the music in his band library and let us have it.”

The entourage left Plainview early Saturday, arriving at the Marriott Motor Hotel that evening. The group had 100 rooms reserved for two nights, with the group returning home on Monday.

At 10 a.m. Sunday the group rehearsed at the Cotton Bowl for Cowboys and CBS officials. After that they ate lunch — courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys — on the grounds of the Texas State Fair. After lunch the group was ushered to ground-level end zone seats for the 1:30 contest, although they couldn’t take their instruments into the stands. A Cowboys team band performed during the actual game.

Sonny Jurgensen was Washington’s quarterback while Craig Morton called the signals for the Cowboys in what was Roger Staubach’s rookie year. Other notable Cowboys on the field that day were Walt Garrison, Calvin Hill, Bob Hayes, Lance Rentzel, Mike Ditka, Pettis Norman, Chuck Howley, Lee Roy Jordan, Bob Lilly and Jethro Pugh.

“We didn’t do any precision marching that day,” Ryan explained. “Since it was a Christmas show, the band formed bells for chimes, an electric guitar and speakers, and finally a giant Christmas wreath with a bunch of helium-filled balloons for Santa Claus. I guess the TV producers liked what they saw and heard at our rehearsal because CBS broadcast the entire halftime show.”

Most of the entire North American continent saw the PHS band and choir’s performance from start to finish, except for the Lubbock area. KLBK-TV, the CBS affiliate in Lubbock, inadvertently clipped the first and the last of the halftime show — including the group’s introduction — to make room for commercials from a Plainview furniture store.

That local merchant had arranged to purchase the entire block of advertising during halftime specifically so that there would be no commercial interruptions during the band’s performance.